"Now we're getting Ukraine into NATO!" - Ex-Siko boss Ischinger demands clear goals from the West

Created: 05/18/2022, 12:46 p.m

Sandra Maischberger in conversation with Wolfgang Ischinger.

© Screenshot ARD Mediathek

The experts at “Maischberger” are not spreading good news about the Ukraine war.

A guest from Ukraine is missing from the ARD talk for unknown reasons.

Berlin – "After what the Russians have now done, one would have to say: Now we're bringing Ukraine into NATO even more!" ex-Siko boss Wolfgang Ischinger said angrily in Sandra Maischberger's ARD talk.

Ischinger continues: "After all the horrible events, who is going to give this country the security guarantees it needs if peace is ever made?"

The signs point to confrontation.

Ischinger and the head of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, dispel all viewer hopes for a quick solution to the conflict with Russia.

In the program, Müller appeals to citizens to massively reduce their energy consumption - out of a "solidarity idea".

So far, a "savings behavior of the Germans" is "not yet to be seen".

"Maischberger.

The week" - these guests discussed with:

• Wolfgang Ischinger -

  President of the Board of Trustees of the Munich Security Conference Foundation

• Klaus Müller -

  Head of the Federal Network Agency

As experts: 

• Günther Jauch -

  TV presenter

• Tina Hassel -

  head of the ARD capital studio

• Helene Bubrowski -

  parliamentary correspondent for the

  FAZ

Ischinger makes it clear: "The forecasts" indicate "that it will take longer".

When asked about specific periods of time, the security expert cautiously speaks of "several months".

He was "convinced" that Ukraine would "still exist next year", praising above all the political leadership for their "information war", which they had already "won 10-0 against Russia".

This strategy also meant that Russia "was unable to achieve its original war goals".

According to Ischinger, negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are currently suspended.

There is only a chance of peace talks "when both sides" have understood that they "can no longer win the war".

Russia is still "far away" from this point.

Head of the Munich Security Conference Ischinger prophesies Ukraine "war of position"

The former ambassador to the US fears a “war of position” and a “war of attrition”.

The goal must be to continue to prevent "the implementation of Russian goals".

The West must help Ukraine successfully defend its borders.

Here, according to the security expert, it is important that the Western states come to a much more clearly defined and common goal and do not contradict each other in their orientation.

Wolfgang Ischinger - President of the Board of Trustees of the Munich Security Conference Foundation - as a guest on "Maischberger" (ARD).

© Screenshot ARD Mediathek

Ischinger sees the planned accession of Finland and Sweden in NATO positively.

Ischinger responds to the fears of the critics, who fear a further escalation, that in his opinion the accession will help to stabilize the situation: it strengthens the balance of power in favor of NATO, but does not pose any threat to Russia in principle: "No Russian need fear that NATO will march across the Finnish border".

"Maischberger" on Ukraine: German gas storage facilities are currently 42 percent full

Maischberger wants to know from her second guest how well Germany is prepared if Russia shuts off the gas.

Müller was actually supposed to answer questions in a conversation with the former deputy head of Gazprombank, the Ukrainian Ifor Wolobujew.

But the switch to Kyiv does not take place.

Maischberger does not give any reasons.

Instead of a political dialogue, the former consumer advocate Müller explains the scenarios that occur in the event of a gas emergency.

According to Müller, the European regulation ensures the security of supply for the groups that are particularly “worthy of protection”, which, in addition to hospitals, the police and old people’s homes, also include private households.

30 million households and around 2,500 large industrial companies in Germany are dependent on gas, Maischberger introduces specific figures.

According to Müller, a survey is currently underway as to which of the larger industrial companies could reduce deliveries or even stop deliveries altogether.

The fact that 42 percent of the gas storage facilities are currently full is neither "good" nor "reassuring", says Müller.

The reservoirs would have to “become full”.

A floating liquefied gas terminal is to be completed in Wilhelmshaven by December, which will also accommodate deliveries from Qatar that are transported by ship.

Müller warns of "immense" additional costs for gas users and appeals to viewers to turn off the heating now at the latest.

Moderator Jauch refused to sign the Schwarzer letter: "Neben"

There was harsh criticism in the broadcast for the open letter from Alice Schwarzer and other signatories, which Ischinger calls a "defeatist rejection of Ukraine's right to exist" and a "moral-political distortion between perpetrator and victim".

Moderator Günther Jauch, as an expert, said he had received a request to sign the letter from Schwarzer – and rejected it.

He calls the suggestion in the letter "off the mark" and indirectly compares Putin's regime with the Nazis: "If nobody had stood up to Hitler - what would it have been like in Europe?"

Jauch also criticizes non-voters in North Rhine-Westphalia, where turnout was as low as 55.5 percent.

Jauch: "45 percent of those entitled to vote did not go to the polls!" While in the Ukraine people "betrayed their lives" for "democracy", in Germany "the people stayed at home and threw this basic democratic right in the bin".

Conclusion of the “Maischberger.

The week” talks

The most interesting guest of the evening was missing: despite being directed to Kyiv, the Ukrainian and former Gazprom Bank deputy, who had been announced shortly before the broadcast, did not appear on the screen.

There was no explanation.

Did he not like the double interview with Müller, who had to defend the position of the federal government, or were there even serious reasons?

Clarification would also have been important against the background of the deaths of leading Gazprom employees, which have been increasing in recent weeks.

But maybe the editors themselves were puzzled.